On the naturalised weeds and other plants in South Australia / by Richard Schomburgk.

  • Schomburgk, Richard, 1811-1891.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the naturalised weeds and other plants in South Australia / by Richard Schomburgk. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    6/16 (page 6)
    Drooping Yellow Woodsorrel, called in the colony Soiir-sop. — 0,1'alis cernua^ Thunb. A native of the Cape of Good Hope, and introduced into the colony about 1840 as a garden plant. What the black oats are to the wlieatfields, the Oxalis cernua is to the gardens. The effects of this scourge are strikingly apparent in every garden Avhere it has been ]danted, and has notorious pre-eminence over all weeds introduced, since it is next to impossible to eradicate it when it has obtained a footing. The young bulbs peneti-ate every year deeper into the ground, often two feet, and so multiply that every young plant will produce next year from twenty to thirty bulbs, until the ground is matted over, and all other herbage choked. Experiments were made by burying the plants from three to four feet deep, but the young bulbs came up the next year. It has found its way into the Avheatfields, and spreads there most alarmingly It is said that the first bulbs were sold in the colony at 2s. 6d. per bulb. LEGUMIN08AE. 'I'he following introduced fodder-plants have also spread over some of the pasture lands, improving them materially, viz.:— V\'Tiite Clover. — Trifolum repens^ Dec. Golden-flowered Clover.—TrifoUnm agrariiim, Dec. Common Clover. — Trifolhimpratense, Dec. Small-flowered_ Melilot.—Melilotusparviflorus^ Desf. Lucerne.—Medimgo saliva, Dec. Toothed Medick.—Medicago denticidata, AVilld. (i)ommon Vetch.—Vida saliva, Linn.; and Vida hirsuta, Eisch. Natives of Europe and N. America. UMBELLiFERAE. Common Fennel.—Foenkidum vulgare, Linn. A native of Europe. This useful medicinal plant Avas introduced at an early date, and has spread amazingly over the country, especially^ on the banks of creeks and Avater- courses, groAving to an immense size, often four to six feet high, forming thickets and choking the herbaceous plants. COMPOSITAE. d'his o]'der has supplied the most troublesome of the introduced Aveeds. Scotch Thistle. — Onopordon AcanlMum, Linn. A natiA’e of Europe. Made its appearance in the south, at Cape Jarvis, about 1845, and has since spread extensively over the country. It prefers a rich soil, and shoAvs such a luxuriant groAvth that in some places it has formed impenetrable thickets.